Ammunition magazines are well known in the art of firearms. Their basic construction is a containment shell with two open ends. One end is deemed the “floor” of the magazine and is covered by a plate while the opposite end is the “feed” end and interfaces with the weapon. Inside the volume defined by the shell and plate is a spring and follower assembly. When ammunition is loaded into the magazine, the ammunition pushes the follower down towards the floor and thereby compresses the spring. In use, when one cartridge of ammunition is expended, the compressed spring releases and pushes the follower and associated ammunition upwards toward the feed end and the next round of ammunition is thereby readied.
Prior magazines have been manufactured in many different configurations and of different materials. Perhaps the best known in the U.S. are the AK-47 and the USGI AR15/M16 magazines. These magazines function similarly, though they are made with slight variations to interface with their host system. Of notable difference is that the AK-47 magazine has a relatively constant curvature while the AR15/M16 magazine has a less curved lower region that gradually resolves to a more linear function towards the feed end. Both use the same type of internal system. Of particular note with both systems, and all follower magazine systems, is that the system works well only as the follower smoothly and levelly travels the inside of the magazine. As the follower must move, there is room for the follower in all the known prior art magazines to move axially, or “wobble,” and possibly jam. This is notorious in the AR15/M16 magazine style as the geometry of the magazine is inherently not uniform. Previous attempts to address the many issues with the AR15/M16 magazine have been made, including magazines previously invented by the applicants and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,908,780, issued Mar. 22, 2011, and U.S. Pat. No. 8,069,601, issued Dec. 6, 2011. Both of these patents and products based upon them have fared well in the market as solutions to AR15/M16 magazine issues and serve as a basis for the magazine construction disclosed herein. Accordingly, these two patents are incorporated by reference in their entirety herein.
Of particular interest in the construction of ammunition magazines is the shape of and interface between the follower and the floorplate. The interface needs to be stable when the magazine is fully loaded and, traditionally, the floorplate has been flat with the follower having some contact with the floor plate when the magazine was fully loaded. Various follower designs have been introduced in efforts to improve the performance of ammunition magazines; however, there is usually some trade-off between the motion of the follower and associated round stack and ultimate stability.
The present invention is a polymer magazine utilizing an improved floor plate and interfacing follower. The follower is constructed with fore and aft legs, the fore leg being longer. The floor plate is generally a two-piece floor plate and lock plate combination, the lock plate becoming a shoe for the follower when the magazine is fully loaded. In an alternate, slim-line version, the lock plate is omitted and the floor plate serves as the follower's shoe.